Google now hawking fully unlocked G1s to developers

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It didn’t take long before people started hacking away at the T-Mobile G1, the first phone to ship with Google’s Android platform, and now it looks like Google wants to make it even easier. Starting today, Google is offering a development version of the G1 that is both SIM and hardware unlocked, meaning no more nagging at T-Mobile and waiting for ages to receive an unlock code. The bootloader on this version also doesn’t restrict the device to officially signed firmware builds.

To nab one of these, you’ll need to register as a developer on the Android Market site, pay the one-time $25.00 registration fee, and slap down $399 big ones for the hardware.

Google plans to expand the territories that it’s available in, but initially you may purchase one if you are located in the US, UK, Germany, Japan, India, Canada, France, Taiwan, Spain, Australia, Singapore, Switzerland, Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, Finland, Poland, and Hungary.

Google is advising that these dev phones are just that: phones for developers. They’re not intended for the general consumer, as unguided firmware flashing is a quick way to wind up with a fancy paper weight. Speaking of fancy, check out that battery cover. How much for just that part?